1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to connection-oriented communication networks, and more specifically to a node configuration system and method for connection-oriented communication networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional connection-oriented networks, the configuration of client nodes during initial setup usually involves manual procedures by network operators. In order to relieve the network operators from the time-consuming procedures, a configuration procedure has been proposed as described in "LAN Emulation Over ATM: Version 1.0 Specification", (ATM Forum/94-0035R9), Jan. 6, 1995, pages 62 to 74. According to the prior art configuration procedure, "anycasting" technique is used when a configuration client node attempts to send a packet to one of a group of configuration server nodes if the ATM address of the server node cannot be obtained. This technique is like multicasting in that the destination is a group of addresses, but instead of trying to deliver the packet to all of them, it tries to deliver it to the nearest configuration server node. Anycasting uses a regular unicast (anycast) address. It is up to the routing system to choose the nearest server.
However, one disadvantage of this anycasting approach is that it imposes limitations on the system configuration of a connection-oriented network. Another disadvantage is that, when client's configuration data, which is stored in the configuration server node, is altered, the prior art procedure has no means for detecting and using such alterations for updating the client nodes.